Megaupload Founder Kim Dotcom Gets Legal Setback As US Seeks Extradition
The United States government is working to extradite Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom because Hollywood executives believe he was complicit as content pirates used the service to illegally share copyrighted music and video.
Dotcom, a.k.a. Kim Schmidt, is a German national with residency in New Zealand, and, so far, New Zealand courts have mostly ruled in his favor.
Courts have determined that US initiated raids in which Magaupload servers were illegal. Courts have also unfrozen assets for living and legal expenses in addition to relaxing travel restrictions.
According to The New Zealand Herald, Dotcom’s attorneys had received a ruling from the courts requiring the FBI to disclose all its evidence against him prior to his extradition trial in August. That decision was then upheld by the High Court at Auckland only to be overturned by the Court of Appeal.
New Zealand lawyers representing the United States argued that the evidence could involved “billions of emails and would delay the extradition hearing.”
A 49-page judgment released yesterday by the Court of Appeal says countries making an extradition request are expected to present evidence with “a duty of candour and good faith.”
Kim Dotcom responded to the minor technical setback on Twitter:
Am I disappointed about the ruling today? YES. Do “good faith” & “US govt” go together? NO.Will I sleep like an innocent baby tonight? YES.
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) March 1, 2013
Megaupload was founded by Kim Dotcom in 2005. Before being raided and shut down in January 2012, the site had 50 million visitors a day and accounted for four percent of all Internet traffic. A report in the BBC News says, “The US Department of Justice alleges the firm made about $175m from advertising and membership fees as a result of its activities.”
Fans of the Internet entrepreneur cheered as Dotcom launched Mega, a new file storage system, exactly one year to the minute that Megaupload was raided. Mega offers users 50 GB of free, secure storage. The new service signed up 1 million new users within 24-hours of launch.
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